Japan to use non-existent American technology to remediate contaminated hazmat suits at Fukushima Daiichi

At Fukushima Daiichi, contaminated gear and suits used by workers in and around the nuclear disaster site have been piling up for over a year, as no traditional method of incineration or disposal can prevent the release of radioactive materials on the suits into the environment.

Vision Plasma Systems, based in Reno, Nevada, announced an agreement with the Japanese company Cell Runner Inc., to sell two of its Arc Master I Units, at a cost of $5.8 million per unit, to use for disposal of workers hazmat suits at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Cell Runner of Japan is an intermediary technology provider to many commercial businesses and government agencies.

The Vision Plasma website says that the initial units can be deployed on site to be used to remediate over 5000 rubberized contaminated suits used daily by cleanup crews working in the Facility. Additionally, the system is also said to be entirely self-powering, creating its own energy from the waste that it processes, and creating 120-240 kW of usable electricity. The plasma gasification process creates an ultra high temperature environment that physically breaks complex chemical compounds into single elements so that complex dioxins cannot form or re-form.

Built inside two ISO 40′ metal containers, the unit is claimed to be capable of converting up to 5 tons per day of hazardous wastes and other matter into syngas, net electricity, and recyclable metal ingot, without any air emissions or ash from the gasification process. The Arc Master I is normally started on diesel fuel and then is self-powered after 30 minutes of operation by using the syngas (synthesis gas) created by the plasma gasification process.

So far so good, right? Everything on the surface would indicate that this is a wonderful solution to a critical problem. But not far underneath the surface, something destructive may still be lurking.

Financial analysts puzzled over Vision Plasma Systems rise and fall

Last Friday, Vision Plasma Systems stock tanked, after a record number of over 300 million shares were traded on Thursday before news of the agreement with Cell Runner Inc. was announced. On Thursday and Friday alone, if traders timed their actions perfectly, they potentially could have doubled their investment quickly.

A recent slew of articles have been written by multiple authors questioning forward-looking statements made by the company and stock promoter antics, which have some questioning the motivations behind the recent stock pump.

A financial website Aim High Profits wrote, “So do the math, the Company has $0 on June 30, 2012, and assets (sometimes referred to as inventory) worth $375,149 is now selling two $5.8 million dollar pieces of machinery to solve a problem that occurred a year ago that hasn’t already been capitalized on by a major conglomerate like Haliburton?”

In late-June, Vision Plasma Systems announced a meeting with Brazilian business advisors to negotiate terms for the production of their proprietary Arc Master I units in Brazil. But as multiple financial stock trading sites like Small Cap Network have pointed out, “Vision Plasma Systems has yet to provide an update regarding supposed meetings with Brazilian government officials reported a few months regarding producing the units – which apparently are not yet in existence.”

Another financial analyst website Hot Stocked noted: “The company hasn’t announced any financing, so how they could even manufacture those units is a bit of a mystery. Back in June VLNX supposedly met with a representative of the Brazilian government to discuss the production of the aforementioned units, however there have been no updates on that matter.”

One more interesting fact of note is that the sale cost per unit as agreed with Cell Runner Inc, of $5.8 million per unit, is $1.6 million more than the previously estimated sale price of $4.2 million which was found in a press release .pdf on the companies’ website, which has now been taken down. (Original Website Link) (Archived Document Link)

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This reminds me of the “The Mysterious Mister Tien“ who sold Cleveland a dream to spin trash into gold. Peter Tien had big plans for a facility that would convert Cleveland’s garbage into fuel using a “gasifier” from Kinsei Sangyo of Japan, and the gas would be used to fire boilers to generate the city’s electricity. Tien promised no more landfill or electric bills, and decorative bricks made from the waste sludge that the city could sell to generate revenue.

Cleveland had prior experience with Tien in a 2good2Btrue deal to purchase impossibly cheap LED bulbs from Sunpu Opto in China, but the city took the bait again, and signed a no-bid contract with him in 2010. To earn $1.5 million, all Tien had to do was obtain an EPA permit for the facility.

While the EPA evaluated Tien’s permit request, the city discovered that important deliverables, like job creation, didn’t hold up under scrutiny. Cleveland narrowly avoided a million dollar mistake when the EPA classified the facility as an incinerator and not a gasifier.

In April 2012, Cleveland fired Tien, but I have to wonder if the Mysterious Mister Tien had other deals in the works, like an Arc Master I from Brazil.

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